Unlike my native Alabama - where greenery abounds and there is an occasional dead area - the opposite is true of Afghanistan where wide swaths of dead areas are broken up by the occasional green. (However, I'm told that with the recent drought conditions, the dusty, dryness of my home state might resemble Afghanistan more than I realize.)

So when we stumbled upon some sunflowers sprouting in the nothingness recently, we all broke out our cameras. They may not be as big and beautiful as the sunflowers that grow in Alabama, but they are remarkable in their own right.

There is a message in something beautiful taking root in an otherwise barren place, but you don't need me to point that out, do you?